1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to online presentation environments and, more particularly, a method and apparatus for identifying referenced content within an online presentation environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid growth of the Internet, people are moving to online meetings, presentations and collaboration using various web based tools such as ADOBE CONNECT® available from Adobe Systems Incorporated. A typical use case involves a presentation wherein one or more people (referred to herein as presenters) present a presentation containing content to a number of interested people (referred to herein as participants). Such a presentation may comprise any form of content (e.g., images, text, multimedia and the like) that is disclosed by one or more people to one or more other people for any purpose (e.g., discussion, collaboration, training, sharing and the like). The view of the content is generally the same for all presenters and participants in order to maintain synchronization of the presentation. The presenters are typically transmitting audio via voice over IP (VoIP), traditional telephone or through an Internet connection and computer, while the viewable content is shared with the participants via an online presentation environment displayed on a computer.
Within the presentation environment, the participants may ask questions and post comments (generally make statements) regarding the presentation. As the statements are entered, the presenters may respond to those statements. However, typically the presenter continues the presentation after the statement has been received by the presenter and will provide an answer when convenient to the presenter. At that time, the content relevant to the statement may no longer be displayed to the presenter or the participants. This may result in confusion and a lengthy discussion to determine the relevant content.
Additionally, when the presenters review the statements after the presentation, identity of the content related to the statements is lost. This lack of connection to the relevant content causes the post-presentation analysis to be less than optimal.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus for identifying referenced content within an online presentation environment.